Ball Gowns
"I'm just stepping out for a moment."
Draco leaned close to the door that led into the Hospital Wing and listened. He heard Madam Pomfrey speaking to someone and then, strangely enough, his own voice respond.
"Very well."
Draco heard the sounds of footsteps approaching the door and moved back behind a suit of armor just as Madam Pomfrey opened the door to the Hospital Wing. Draco watched as she closed the door behind her and walked off towards the Teacher's lounge. Once she was out of sight he quickly dashed to the door, swung it open, and moved in.
"Took you long enough." Draco shook his head—it was very unnerving to hear his own voice say that.
"Turn that off, Davis." Draco commanded curtly and parted the curtains around his bed. Tracey Davis was just sitting there, using her wand to color her nails. "And remove yourself from the bed."
"That's right." Tracey said and removed the spell from her vocal chords. "You'll need to appear you've been resting up, won't you?" Tracey asked nonchalantly and moved from the bed to the chair next to it.
"You're staying?" Draco asked blandly and lay back on his bed.
"Just waiting for details, dear Draco." Tracey slipped her wand back into her robes and looked at him.
"I'm sure you'll hear the rumors soon enough." Draco smirked and Tracey cocked an eyebrow.
"I do hope that these don't involve skrewts or flobberworms."
"No, but they might involve deamons and possibly escaped convicts." Draco pondered for a moment and Tracey stood to leave. "Davis—." Draco said and she stopped.
"What?"
"Do you have a quill and parchment?" Draco asked as a brilliant idea dawned on him.
"But of course." Tracey picked up her bag from the end of his bed, opened it, and handed him the quill, parchment, and ink. Draco quickly wrote something down on the parchment, folded it up, and handed it back to her. She stared at him dryly. "You must be joking."
"Hardly." Draco stared at her and folded his arms behind his head.
"Ah but it is my will to serve!" Tracey put her quill and ink back in the bag. "Thy wish is my command, Master Malfoy."
"With that attitude, you might make a passable right-hand man." Draco paused. "So to speak."
Tracey just rolled her eyes, put the note in her pocket, and left the Hospital Wing. Draco knew that, after this, he would owe her quite a few favors—but then again, having a Malfoy owe you favors wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"You."
Ginny nearly leapt out of her skin as she turned the corner and heard a rather dark sounding voice demand her from behind. She spun around and blinked as she spotted one of the Slytherins that had harassed her a few days ago. She stared at the sticklike, pale, black clad girl and backed up a step.
"Take this." Tracey pulled a note out of her pocket and held it out at Ginny with a flat expression that mimicked distaste—Ginny had never heard of a Slytherin girl passing notes before.
"Um…thank you?" Ginny said and took the note from her. The moment the note had left her hand, the Slytherin girl turned and walked off looking reasonably irritated. Ginny watched her walk around the corner and then looked down at the note in her hands. She opened it up and nearly laughed aloud as she read it.
Tomorrow. Come with me to Hogsmeade. Seven o'clock.
It didn't take her long to determine who in the Slytherin house would ever send a note like that. There were only two explanations for this—either it was a joke, or it was the favor that she owed Draco.
"What's this, Ginny?"
Ginny turned to see Cho staring at her with interest. She folded the note and stuck it in her robes drawing a smirk out of Cho.
"Found Mr. Right, have you?" Cho asked and Ginny smiled.
"No, I haven't met Mr. Right. But I have met Mr. Rude, Mr. Cheap, and Mr. Cocky." Ginny finished with a nonchalant wave of her right hand.
"Ah sarcasm," Cho grinned and adjusted her book bag on her shoulder, "Something new and exciting for us." She finished and looked both ways down the hall—there was no one coming either way. "Good work at the match today—I had no idea you could play like you do and still have that shocked shy expression afterwards. Impressive really." Cho commented and furrowed her brow as Ginny's expression altered slightly.
"Um…thanks." Ginny smiled and Cho's eyes widened.
"You really were shocked," Cho stated and held up her hand to cover the devilish smile that was twisting her lips. "Merlin. Ginny Weasley actually cared that she hit Draco Malfoy."
"Don't say it." Ginny warned and fingered her wand.
"Fine." Cho held up her hands and bit her lip to keep from smiling. "Would you like me to lend you a dress?"
Ginny stared at her for a moment, rolled her eyes, and walked away at a quick and aggravated pace. She had already had one of the strangest days of her life and now she had to meet Malfoy for a day at Hogsmeade. Somehow, though, the thought of spending a day with Malfoy was somewhat more tolerable than she cared to admit.
The sun rose lazily over the northern portion of the small island off the coast of France that was commonly referred to as Scotland, and being a weekend and all, the entire populous of the school—save a few of the more…overzealous students who were eagerly awaiting the opening of the library. (Little did they know that Madam Pince had, just recently, been on a bit of a bender and had the worst hangover Hogwarts had seen since the days of the youthful Minerva McGonagall and Persephone Pomfrey.
As was to be expected the number of carriages set out to take students down to Hogsmeade before noon were quite small and one Draco Malfoy was having quite an easy time scaring the four or five excited groups of third years away from 'his' personal coach.
Whilst Draco had the most entertaining task of frightening off young children via his imposing visage his eagle owl was serving a slightly less noble purpose—if that was, in fact, possible. The old tapped impatiently on the window of the fifth year girls' room that Ginny and her four roommates were currently trying to sleep inside. This owl, however, had been ordered on pain of Pansy Parkinson, to wake Ginny and wake her it would.
"Somebody get it!" Cassandra's pillow muttered sounding particularly annoyed.
"Is it an owl or a bloody woodpecker?" Linda's balled up covers chimed in sounding particularly groggy. The remaining two beds let out angry groans that were really quite incoherent and finally Ginny just hauled herself from her bed and answered the bird at the window.
To say the least she'd not expected him to mean seven in the a.m.. Needless to say that Ginny was more than a tad annoyed at having been dragged out of bed by an eagle owl and then forced to rush so she could be 'on time.' She finally managed to tromp out of the castle—without breakfast, much to her chagrin—and she met up with Malfoy.
"Ah milady, thyne coach awaits." Draco smirked and, with a flourish, opened the door to the carriage. Ginny just rolled her eyes at him and, grumpily, climbed in.
"Just why are you so cheerful?" Ginny asked as Draco sat down and shut the door behind him. She eyed him suspiciously for a moment and wished, oh so dearly, to wipe the cool smile off of his face.
"Not a morning person I take it?" Draco drawled and Ginny shook her head—more out of annoyance than anything else.
"So what do you need me for?" Ginny asked bluntly—something that she didn't do too often.
"Whatever do you mean?" Draco came back with a question in his annoying monotone.
"Don't tell me you wanted to spend the day with me just for the awesome pleasure of my company." Ginny looked up at him. He made a small 'hm' noise and then looked out the window without bothering to answer her. Ginny watched him for a moment, shot him a strange look, and just shook her head again.
The carriage continued down the hill and the two remained in silence for the rest of the ride. It took a while, but Ginny's mind eventually woke fully and she realized that neither of Malfoy's lumbering crones were with them. She supposed that might have been why the average feeling in the air was that of quiet sophistication rather than outright idiocy. The carriage stopped, Draco got out, and in a surprising act of grace, he helped Ginny out of the carriage. The two started walking down the nearly empty streets and finally Ginny broke the silence.
"Why are we here?" Ginny asked and looked around at all the stores.
"Getting a bit philosophical, aren't you?" Draco stopped and absentmindedly looked through the window of ones of the shops. "Are you ready for tomorrow?" Draco asked as if it was just another question and took Ginny slightly off guard.
"I assume you're referring to the ball," Ginny prefaced and looked down the street. "If you're asking whether or not I have a dress yet I must say, I'm afraid I don't."
"Really, then," Draco arched an eyebrow and looked at her. "You're procrastination is beginning to rival mine."
"Are you saying that you don't have a dress either?" Ginny shot back with a mildly amused sort of smirk. Draco blinked at her and let out a sigh before shaking his head slightly.
"Father wanted me to wear his old one but, sadly, I'm not quite his size," Draco professed in a slightly overdone manner and Ginny had to suppress a laugh—but she couldn't manage to keep a smile from creeping over her face.
"A Malfoy without a ball gown, that's just shameful," Ginny said and fought to keep the mirth out of her voice—the image of Lucius Malfoy in a ball gown was simply too funny.
"Perhaps we should peruse for one together?" Draco suggested and Ginny picked up the jovial note in his voice.
"That doesn't sound like a terrible idea," Ginny admitted and then looked back at the street before them. "Who are you and what have you done with Draco?" Ginny forced her voice to sound mildly grave but the grin on her face really gave her away. Had she been paying attention she might have noticed the small surprised look that flashed across the face of the boy behind her—it wasn't the fact that she'd just insulted him, but she'd said his name and it hadn't been forced.
The two of them went and perused through stores filled with dresses and—much to her jubilance—Ginny managed to rope Draco in a verbal spar and for her victory she got to see him in a mirror of the dress she was wearing. True, he didn't seem too amused by it, but he did remark that his father never had the figure to pull something like that off. After perusing through the clothing store and buying a grand total of nothing the two continued to window shop down the relatively empty streets (though they were filling quickly as noon approached). Nothing but caustic barbs and sharp jabs with their polished rapier wits were exchanged between them—but despite this rather twisted form of conversation they weren't having an insufferable time. Eventually the two of them stopped off at the Three Broomsticks and had something that vaguely resembled lunch.
The Three Broomsticks was, inexplicably, empty for once in its existence. So, logically, Draco and Ginny had little trouble finding a table. They'd just gotten their butterbeers and were enjoying them in silence when Draco spoke up and nearly caused Ginny to choke.
"You know I did look better in that dress that you, right?" Draco said just as he took a calm drink of his butterbeer. Unfortunately he'd timed it and spoken right at the time Ginny was trying to swallow. She ended up nearly dropping her bottle to the table and coughing as she fought against the butterbeer she'd inhaled upon the startling statement.
"Pardon me?" Ginny stared at him, wide-eyed, and Draco cocked an eyebrow before putting on a fake sort of surprised look.
"You don't agree?" Draco asked and managed, somehow, to keep his composure—he was overjoyed with himself for cracking through her façade so easily. Ginny stared at him and she knew almost immediately why his eyes seemed so smug.
"I'll have you know, Draco Malfoy," Ginny said and lifted her index finger on her right hand to illustrate her point, "my brother Percy has that very same gown and I have never seen anyone more radiant in it than him." Ginny finished just as Draco took a drink and he nearly choked as well—sadly though he controlled his response a bit better.
"En guard." Draco smirked at her and lifted his mug.
"Touché." Ginny clicked her mug against his and grinned. The two finished off their butterbeers and launched into a conversation about just who looked more radiant in which particular gown, which lasted nearly ten minutes before they were interrupted by the worst possible people—no, not the Slytherins.
"Hello Ginny." Ginny looked up and smiled nervously at her brother. He was quite obviously clenching his teeth together and his knuckles were white from how much force he was using to keep them in tight fists.
"Ron, how're you?" Ginny asked nicely and her expression fell slightly as Harry and Hermione returned from the bar only to find Ron talking to the pair of people they'd been trying, desperately, not to notice. "Oh Harry, Hermione, lovely to see you," Ginny said humorlessly as the two walked over and stood, uneasily, next to Ron. Draco could have sworn under his breath—he was annoyed that they'd ruined his progress. He'd been trying to get Ginny to laugh since early in the morning and now they were killing the mood.
"Ginny." Harry smiled at Ginny and then wordlessly inclined his head slightly to Draco who did nothing in return.
"Um…Hello," Hermione forced a smile and took Ron by the arm. She practically had to drag him away from the table and, after a sharp word from across the room, she managed to get Harry away from the table and back over to them. Unfortunately, despite her polite efforts, she couldn't seem to get either of them to stop glaring at Draco.
"Hard to ignore, aren't they?" Ginny asked and looked back at Draco.
"Judging by that throbbing vein in your brother's jaw and that murderous look in Potter's eyes I'd wager that if I kissed you right now they'd try to fillet me," Draco commented off hand and was a bit shocked when Ginny started to laugh. Draco looked at her with a bit of confusion in his eyes—surely she wasn't laughing at the prospect of them filleting him. "What?" He asked and marveled for a moment at how much he sounded like Snape.
"I don't know how it happened," Ginny prefaced and shook her head. "But somehow I just imagined Ron and Harry in copies of that dress, shaking their fists at you from afar." Ginny sighed and tried to force her smile down a bit as she looked up at Draco. He was clenching his teeth together and had a smirk on his face that only made her want to laugh more. Finally they both just gave up and started laughing—this shocked many of the third, second, and first years and caused both Harry and Ron to shoot up out of their seats as if he'd committed a felony.
"That, Ginny, is the single funniest thing I've thought of all day." Draco congratulated her slightly and noticed the bristling pair of boys that were trying to dissect him with their eyes.
"Somehow I think we should part ways here, lest my brother have an aneurysm." Ginny sighed heavily and shot Ron a withering glare. "But I must admit you're not as big an ass as I originally thought." Ginny smirked back at Draco, obviously mocking him.
"You're not as helpless as you look either," Draco stood up and, as he was walking out, he added, "Except when it comes to ball gowns."
"Alright! You looked better in it than I did!" Ginny called after him and shook her head. This was a very strange day, and she had a feeling it would only get stranger. Unfortunately her prediction was spot on as a second later Ron and Harry, despite Hermione's protests, crossed the room and sat down at the table where Ginny was.
"What are you doing, Gin, he's the enemy!" Ron announced and looked at Harry who nodded.
The two of them switched back and forth between each other and between both warnings to Ginny and insults towards Draco. This continued for nearly an hour—Hermione had left long ago—and finally Ginny was starting to get tired of listening (or rather not listening) to them. She stood up abruptly, grabbed the nearest person—Parvati Patil—and sat her down in the chair.
"Sorry boys, I must be off, but here—Parvati would love to hear all about it!" Ginny smiled, patted Parvati on the shoulder, and waved at them as she moved towards the door. "Take notes for me!" She called and was gone.
"Hear all about what?" Parvati asked after a moment of silence. She was confused and a bit uneasy about being shoved into a chair across from Harry and Ron, but she was always up for news or gossip.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Author's Notes: First off I would like to assure you all (wonderful reviewers that you are) that, yes, I will be producing more HP fanfiction after this fic. I have one which I will finish—or die trying—and I have several other D/G stories that are ready to be written.
Next, the chapter Sympathy for the Devil was a bit out of place. I had originally planned for a small sort of competition between Harry, Anthony, and Draco to try and keep/win Ginny. Unfortunately this story has already spanned too long for my taste and I had to cut it out. But that chapter did demonstrate a bit of Draco, right?
Thanks to all of you and I apologize for the long wait. The other chapters should be coming along rather quickly but they are going to be nearly twice to thrice as long as this one.